Wrestling headgear



y 1959 R. v. ROBERTS 2,886,818

WRESTLING HEADGEAR Filed July 23, 1958 INVENTOR. Raymond M Roberts.

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ATTORNEYS,

tive relation to the ears of the wearer.

WRESTLING HEADGEAR Raymond V. Roberts, Manitou Springs, Colo. Application July 23, 1958, Serial No. 750,327

2 Claims. (Cl. 2-3) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in athletic headgear, and more particularly to wrestling headgear which may be worn by amateur wrestlers as well as professionals during training periods to protect their ears from blows which frequently cause the ears to become permanently enlarged and deformed or what is commonly called cauliflower ears.

The principal objects of the present invention are to provide headgear which includes guards that completely cover the ears of the wearer and a plurality of retaining bands together with an adjustable portion for cooperating with different portions of the head to retain the guards in place without discomfort to the wearer; to provide such a headgear wherein an adjustable band engages the nape of the neck and provides an adjustment for persons having long or short chins whereby the headgear is held in place without excessive band pressure; to provide such a headgearwith chin bands having an end detachably connected to the ear guards for facilitating application and removal of the headgear from the head of a wearer; to provide such a headgear with ear guards of pliable plastic with a cushion member on the edges thereof for contacting the face of the wearer whereby the ear guards and cushion thereon will fit various shapes of the face; and to provide such a wrestling headgear that is economical to manufacture, easily applied and adjustable whereby the headgear is re tained in place without discomfortable pressure from any portion thereof.

\ Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein are set forth by way of illustration and example certain embodiments of this invention.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation illustrating the application of the headgear to a wearers head.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the headgear.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view through the headgear on the line 3-3, Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a detailed perspective view of one of the two ear guards illustrating the inner face thereof.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional view through the ear guard on the line 5--5, Fig. 1.

. Referring more in detail to the drawings:

1 designates in its entirety a headgear which includes ear guards 2 and 3, said ear guards being of the same construction and differing from each other only to the extent that guard 2 covers the right ear and guard 3 covers the left ear. The ear guards are connected by a network 4 of retainingbands which traverse the head of a wearer for positioning and retaining the ear guards thereon in protec- Each ear guard consists of a main body portion 5 of concavo-convex shape with an angularly arranged marginal peripheral flange 6.

"The marginal flange is preferably shaped whereby the inner face 7 thereof is of similar shape to the portions of the head surrounding and adjacent the ear of a person, the

' forward portion of the flange being curved outwardly in the convex side will not cause it to cave in and engage the tures also will permit sound to reach the ears covered by the guards.

The marginal flanges 6 of the ear guards have pads 9 applied thereto. As illustrated in Fig. 5, the pads 9 are of generally U-shaped or channel-shaped cross section and extend around the ear guard to completely enclose the edges of the flanges 6. It is preferable that the pad have an inner portion or ply ltl formed of suitable soft material such as soft rubber, and preferably of a gum rubber, wherebythe inner face 11 of the inner ply 10 contacts the face of the wearer and tendsto adhere to the skin thereby aiding in holding the ear guard in place. The inner portion 10 is on the insideof the flange 6 and the other portion 12 of the pad 9, that is the portion on the outside of the flange 6, is preferably of semi-hard or vulcanized rubher for increased wearing ability and abrasion resistance. The pad 9 is secured to the flange 6 by means of rivets 13 or other suitable fastening devices which extend through the marginal flange 6 and the outer portion 12 or the ply overlying said flange whereby the inner ply 10 covers the inner ends of the securing devices or rivets 13 and protects the wearer from injury therefrom.

The network 4 of bands includes a transverse forehead band 14-, a transverse crown band 15 and a transverse back band 16. Each of the bands have their opposite ends attached to the marginal flanges of the ear guards, preferably by means of the fastening devices or rivets 13, whereby the forehead band extends across the forehead of the wearer and the crown bandextends over the wearers head, and the back or nape band extends across the lower portion of the back of the head or nape of the neck of the wearer. These bands are held in proper spaced relation with respect to each other, and prevented from slipping ing device such as a rivet 18 at the intermediate portion or mid-point thereof and extends therefrom over the crown band to the back band, being secured by a suitable fastening device such as arivet 19 to the crown band and a fastening device such as a rivet 20 to the back band 16. The other or rear end of the fore and aft band 17 extends downwardly from the back band 16 and is turned inwardly and upwardly and secured to itself by a fastening device 21 adjacent the back band to provide a loop 22 in the lower rear end of said fore and aft band. It is preferable that the rivets each be of the hollow shank type with the ends of the shank 23 peened or rolled back over a washer 24 so as to provide relatively smooth edges to reduce the possibility of injury.

To prevent the guards from working upwardly or rearwardly, bands are arranged to engage the chin of the wearer, and they preferably include a chin band 25 attached at its opposite ends to the marginal flanges of the ear guards with the intermediate portion of said chin band extending below the chin of the wearer. A chin stay band 26 has opposite ends attached to the ear guards with the intermediate portion engaging the forward portion of the chain, as illustrated in Fig. 1. The chin stay band 26 preferably has the ends thereof fastened to the lower portion of the ear guards, and the chin band has its end portions fastened to the ear guards forwardly and upwardly from the ends of the chin stay band whereby said bands cross on each side of the face of the wearer. The crossing points 'of the chin band and chin stay band are suitably secured together by a fastening device 27 such as a rivet or the like whereby the intermediate portion of the chin band' cooperates with the stay band to form a loop that encircles the chin of the wearer.

Patented May 19, 1959 It is preferable that one end of the chin stay band and chin band each be secured to the ear guard, for example, the ear guard 2 by suitable fastening devices such as rivets 28, and that the other ends of each of said bands be removably secured to the ear guards by detachable fasteners such as separable snaps 29, the end portions of the bands 25 and 26 extending beyond the snaps preferably being very short to reduce the possibility of opposing wrestlers obtaining a finger hold and pulling the snap loose by accidental engagement. The snap portions are of conventional structure with one portion on the ear guard and the other portion on the respective band.

Each of the retaining bands are preferably of elastic with limited stretch whereby said bands may be slightly elongated to place the structure on the head of the wearer, but insufficient stretch to permit the headgear from being pulled off accidentally in the wrestling.

In order to hold the headgear in place without excessi've pressure on the bands, and further to provide adjustment for suitable pressure without discomfort on persons having either long or short chins, an adjustable nape band 30 traverses the nape of the neck below the back band and has opposite ends attached to the marginal flanges of the ear guards, said adjustable band extending through the loop 22. In the illustrated structure, the adjustable band 30 includes one end portion 31 having an end 32 attached to the adjacent ear guard and the other end turned backwardly as at 33 and secured to connect a metal loop or eye 34 thereto. The other end portion 35 has one end secured to the other ear guard and extends therefrom through an opening 36 on one side of a buckle 37 around a center bar 38 and through the other opening 39, then through the loop 22 and through the eye or loop 34 and back through the loop 22 and through the opening 39, and is turned rearwardly back on itself as at 40' and secured to the adjacent ply by a suitable fastening device such as a rivet 41, as illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3. This provides an adjustable strap wherein the total length thereof may be altered to change the pressure of the chin bands and head bands of the network on the various portions of the wearer whereby there is suflicient tightness to retain the headgear in place but insuflicient pressure to cause discomfort to the wearer.

With the headgear and ear guards thereon properly applied, the ear guards 2 and 3 will cover the ears of the wearer and the soft marginal inner portions 10 of the pads will cushion any blows delivered against the body portion of the ear guards so that no injury will be received by the wearer. The head, chin and neck bands retain the ear guards in place, and the chin stay band and chin band cooperate with the adjustable neck band to adjust the pressure of said bands to eliminate discomfort but still hold the guards in place even though the wearers head is subjected to rough treatment by an opponent. It is preferred that the various bands 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 26 and 30, all be formed of an elastic fabric material having limited stretch, although other types of elastic materials may be employed. Due to the limited stretch of the elastic bands, the adjustable neck band may be adjusted to fit the headgear to a wearer and then the headgear applied and removed from the head of the wearer due to the releasable snap connection of the chin stay band and chin band to the ear guard.

It is to be understood that while I have illustrated and described one form of my invention, it is not to be limited to the specific form or arrangement of parts herein described and shown except insofar as such limitations are included in'the claims.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. Wrestling headgear of the character described comprising, apair of complementary ear covering guards, a network of positioning and retaining bands extending from said guards and adapted to traverse the head of a wearer,

said bands including transverse bands adapted to engage the wearers forehead, head crown and nape of the neck, and a fore and aft band connected to the mid-portions of the forehead, crown and nape-engaging bands, each of said ear covering guards embracing a main part and a marginal flange integral therewith, means extending through said marginal flange and through the end of said positioning and retaining bands adapted to engage the forehead, crown and nape of the wearer, a chin band adapted to traverse the under portion of the chin with ends overlying the lower forward portion of the ear guards, a chin stay strap adapted to traverse the forward portion of the chin and having ends overlying the.

lower portion of the ear guards whereby said chin stay band and chin band cross adjacent the respective ear guards, means securing the chin stay band and chin band together at the crossing points, thereof, means fixing an end of the chin band and chin stay band to one ofv the ear guards, releasable fastener means on the other ends of the chin stay band and chin band and other ear guard to releasably connect said other ends of said bands to the ear guard, a second nape band below the first-named nape-engaging band and having ends secured to said ear covering guards, said second nape band being adjustable in length for adjusting the pressure thereof and the pressure of the chin-engaging bands on the wearer, and an extension on the fore and aft band having a loop portion embracing the mid-portion of the second nape band.

2. Wrestling headgear of the character described comprising, a pair of complementary ear covering guards, a network of positioning and retaining bands extending from said guards and adapted to traverse the head of a wearer, said bands including transversebands adapted to engage the wearers forehead, head crown and nape of the neck, and a fore and aft band connected to the midportions of the forehead, crown and nape-engaging bands, each of said ear covering guards embracing a concave convex main part and a marginal flange integral therewith, a pad of U-shape in section enclosing said marginal flange by overlying the edge and inner and outer faces thereof, rivets extending through said marginal flange, through the portion only of the pad which overlies the outer face of the marginal flange and throughithe end of said positioning and retaining bands adapted to engage the forehead, crown and nape of the wearer, a chin band adapted to traverse the under portion of the chin with ends overlying the lower forward portion, of the ear guards, a chin stay strap adapted to traverse the forward portion of the chin and having ends overlying the lower portion of the ear guards whereby said chin stay band and chin band cross adjacent the respective ear guards, means securing the chin stay bandand chin band together at the crossing points thereof, means fixing an end of the chin band and chin stay band to one of' the ear guards, releasable fastener means on the other ends of the chin stay band and chin band and other ear guard to releasably connect said other ends of said bands to the ear guard, a second nape band below the first.- named nape-engaging band and having ends secured to said ear covering guards, said second nape band being adjustable in length for adjusting the pressure thereof and the pressure of the chin-engaging bands on the wearer, and an extension on the fore and aft band having a loop portion embracing the mid-portion of the second nape band.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

